Mutati challenges govt to tell whole truth on Zamtel sale

Former Commerce and Trade Minister Felix has asked the PG government to be truth on the Zamtel deal.

Mutati says the current government is only focusing on the net instead of the gross proceeds of the transaction after debt and pensioners were paid.

He said the previous government did a decent job on the Zamtel deal to Lap Green of Libya.He said unlike in the past where pensioners were left languishing, the Zamtel deal ensured that former workers were paid their dues on time.

Mutati says the deal is a model of the best privatization in the country because it followed what is provided for by the law.

In the morning, Justice Minister Sebastian Zulu said the $257 million sale of Zambia Telecommunications Corp. to LAP Green Network of Libya was “a fraud.”

H e said The previous government acted with “extreme haste and did not follow normal tender procedures and renders the transaction illegal,” Zulu, who led an investigation into the transaction.

But Situmbeko Musokotwane, who was Minister of Finance and National Planning when Zamtel was sold to LAP Green, rejected Zulu’s claims. “We followed the law, so why is it that there is a difference of opinion,” he told a press conference in Lusaka.